Why Pakistan has troops in Saudi Arabia - and what it means for Middle East

The two countries' close ties were tested in 2015 when the Pakistani parliament unanimously rejected a Saudi request for Pakistani troops to support its Yemen campaign

Pakistan recently announced that it will send military personnel to Saudi Arabia. The details of the deployment remain elusive, but a composite brigade of the Pakistani military will reportedly fulfil advisory and training roles. It seems Islamabad and Riyadh’s longstanding relationship is getting stronger – so what are the implications?

First of all, Pakistani troops have been deployed in the Saudi kingdom before. Pakistani military engagement started when its special services participated in the operation to eliminate fundamentalist elements that seized the Grand Mosque in Makkah in 1979. Afterwards, tens of thousands